The year is 2099. The last male died January of 2051. The Y disease was created to destroy evil. It ended up destroying all of the men.
The Founding Mothers have formed new governments. Woman are still able to have children, female children.
Scientists are working to develop the Lazarus Genome. It is said to be able to bring men back.
Now the genome has been stolen. Athena is brought in to help investigate the theft. Little does she know the heartbreak, and the knowledge she will gain trying to discover the truth. In the end humanity as we know it lies in her hands.
An intriguing science fiction story.

Athena's Choice is a book I will thinking about for a long time. At the end of the 21st century, a deadly virus has killed all men on earth. Women have lived the past 40-some years without men and have eliminated war, poverty, famine and violence from the world. Two different factions of women have different desires and visions for the future. The "Lonely Hearts" want to bring men back, they feel that the world and their lives are incomplete without them. Meanwhile, the Women First movement opposes returning men to the world, pointing out how much safer the world is without them and reminding the women of the propensity of men for war, rape, and murder.

Congress has passed a resolution to have research done into how to create a cure for the virus that has wiped out men and have men returned and provided funding to a lab to do this. But the male genome has been stolen from the research lab and Captain Valerie Bell in Public Safety is trying to locate the genome and the person who stole it. 19 year old Athena Vosh has been pulled into the search by The Core - an Artificial Intelligence being who has directed Captain Bell that Athena's help is required to find the genome and the people responsible for its theft. Athena has been having odd dreams of crumbling libraries, grazing buffalo, and a book on original sin - but what is the meaning of her dreams? And why does a 19 year old hold the key to solving this mystery?

Athena's Choice is a thought-provoking adventure that examines gender, society, and our technological future. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in futuristic or dystopian fiction.

I just finished reading Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom. Athena's Choice is a powerfully written dystopian novel featuring a world where men no longer exist. It is the year 2099, and the technology featured in this novel seems realistic in many ways. We are on the brink of being able to do many of the things that are prominent in Athena's Choice, which really helps the reader just dive right in and relate to the book!

This new world has existed for quite some time without men in it due to a nasty virus spread by terrorists.... though for some reason, I never quite understood how they were able to reproduce... at some point frozen sperm would run out so there must have been a method I just didn't quite grasp while learning what it was like to be Athena. Athena is not your typical teenager, instead she is a painter.. a dreamer... a visionary who does not know why she doesn't fit in, but she thinks it is because she is one of The Lonely Hearts who long for men.

Books written will skill and imagination that make me visualize it as a movie....yes, Athena's Choice grabbed my attention and kept it throughout the whole ride. I also liked the inclusion of grade school papers, articles, news pieces, and advertisements in between some of the chapters. It appealed in many ways and related to how people, not just teenagers, receive, communicate, and retain information. Very creative!!!

This is the most disturbing book I have read this year. It's also one of the best. It demonstrates what are future could possibly be if we choose to use science without considering the ethics and possible effects. The story is about a girl named Athena. It's set in the year 2099. Due to climate change and severe flooding there was a migration from the floods into other areas. Men started killing the migrants in acts vigilantism. One of the terrorists came up with a virus supposed to target these murderers. However, it killed all of the men, mysteriously some women. This occurred in the 2040s. Now women have relationships with women. Babies are genetically chosen and made for artificial insemination. There is project Lazarus which is working on the genome sequence to bring men back. However, it's stolen, and Athena becomes involved in trying to find out who stole it and why. This writer is definitely one to follow.

I love the dystopia world building with these amazing, cool high tech advancements that could be developed in our near future. I can easily imagine the future and story before my eyes. The concept of the story had caught my attention about a world of womankind, no men. With thousands of thoughts to what Athena had decided to do at the end with her knowledge and position because she holds the key to the decision of mankind, I never got my answer. I had enjoyed reading it, but was slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to find out what was Athena's Choice.

I think this book would be best as young adult fiction. It wasn't my cup of tea. The writing just wasn't at the right level. It was a bit difficult to read.

4 and a half dragons.
3.5 to 4 for writing and plot, 5 for the thinking it makes the reader do.
I came across Athena's Choice and liked the cover. I read the description and thought "holy crap, a world without men?! That sounds like a crazy, entertaining story." And then I saw that it was published on my birthday. Naturally I had to read it.
I’m intensely happily married so the idea of a world without men makes me shudder. My hubby gone? No, no NO!
I also have a ton of brothers and a great dad not to mention male friends so again NO.
I think this was an interesting read because it begs the question “are men evil?” Which is obviously a stupid question. Humans are evil, but men specifically? That’s like asking “are women stupid?” Yeah some of them, but not every single one. However, the book discusses the rampant nature of violent crime perpetrated at the hands of men. Think about the things we hear about in the news: gun violence, terrorism, rape, domestic abuse, etc. Yes women commit these crimes as well, but the overwhelming majority are committed by men.
Obviously the argument to exterminate anything flawed isn’t one I agree with and that’s why this book is important. The current state of affairs needs to be discussed. Toxic masculinity exists, toxic femininity and toxic feminists exist. We need to take a hard look at the statistics and try to learn why.
A very brief search with Bing and Wikipedia led to the following results.
2011 arrest data from the FBI:[51]
• Males constituted 98.9% of those arrested for forcible rape[51]
• Males constituted 87.9% of those arrested for robbery[51]
• Males constituted 85.0% of those arrested for burglary[51]
• Males constituted 83.0% of those arrested for arson.[51]
• Males constituted 81.7% of those arrested for vandalism.[51]
• Males constituted 81.5% of those arrested for motor-vehicle theft.[51]
• Males constituted 79.7% of those arrested for offenses against family and children.[51]
• Males constituted 77.8% of those arrested for aggravated assault[51]
Men accounted for 80.4 percent of persons arrested for violent crime.
Notice the words “of those arrested for,” this is an important inclusion that shouldn’t be overlooked. It is hugely important to realize that women often don’t get arrested for horrible things they’ve done whereas men almost always are arrested for the same offense. For example, spousal abuse. A women must seriously damage her significant other before most officers will arrest her for abuse. Whereas a man need only hit a woman in the presence of an officer for the result to be arrest. However, both instances should have the same result of arrest.
From 2003 to 2012, there was a decrease in the rate of crime overall, but an increase in crimes committed by women.
I don’t know why there is an increase in crimes committed by women, but it may have the same solution as stopping crimes committed by men.

Happiness profiling seems like it could be a terrible idea. The idea is that you input information and are told what would make you happiest out of your options. However, I imagine this being used to close oneself off from the world and never broaden horizons. For example my happiness profile would almost always tell me I wanted to stay inside with a good book and my husband, possibly with snacks and a low-maintenance puppy. Obviously I wouldn’t be very successful in life nor would I have any growth. Though this happiness profile would probably take that into account I still fear that it would be an enabler for all the weak things we do under the guise of self-care. In the book it does mention that it takes joy and FULFILMENT into account.
Now onto the writing itself. The descriptions are quite good and bring the book to a higher level than the characterization alone would have allowed. I can absolutely imagine this futuristic world and all of its luxuries.
Captain Bell’s character was super annoying and often came across a bit overdone and clichéd. She seemed like a caricature and also like a teenager with the constant eye-rolling. Also when it comes to Athena and Nomi I was never sure who the perspective was coming from because it would switch constantly with no explanation. I would be sure it was Athena’s perspective but then I would be told what Nomi was doing in another room. This was only an issue when the two were together which wasn’t all that often.
Now, this has nothing to do with the story itself, but I’m really glad to see a male YA author. It seems like much of YA and fiction writing today is done by women. And while that in itself isn’t a bad thing, exclusion and lack of variety is.
**spoiler alert**
One thing that maybe didn’t make sense was that the bad guys… bad women who caused the y-fever were still worried about being caught even though a pardon had already been delivered regarding anyone involved willfully or otherwise. Obviously genocide would most likely cause an uproar and potential death through vigilante justice even after a pardon, but they shouldn’t be held responsible by the law. Also, they could probably hide out. I don’t know.
Boostrom also flipped the orientation of the “coming out” idea with Athena being a “lonely heart” aka a heterosexual. She hid it from others and even herself, and the descriptions of her feelings and self-discovery were insightful.
I think Athena absolutely chose to bring men back. I also think Nomi’s death was partially done to make the decision easier for Athena because it feels less like a betrayal if Nomi is gone.
**end of spoiler**

ATHEN'S CHOICE is a great novel. This is my first novel by Adam Boostrom but I was not disappointed. Great characters and great plot which is easy to follow. I read this book in 2 sittings.

The year is 2099, it has been 50 years since men walked the earth. A world like any other I've read before. I loved reading about the advanced technology and the way it incompases their everyday life. The story follows Athena, a young woman who has been involved in the investigation of the stolen Lazarus Genome, the key for resurrecting the male species.

To begin with I was enraptured. Unfortunately by about half way through I started to lose interest. The character building was not enough for me to fully enjoy the story. I also found it frustrating that Dr's names kept being switched between first and last names towards the end. Worst of all was the ending, I'm really over the whole "what do you think happened" scenario. Sometimes it's fitting but this one just left me feeling a bit cheated.

In saying that this book sparked many different thoughts about technology and society that I hadn't thought of before. I enjoyed this book. Thank you Net Galley for providing me with a copy for an honest review.

What a great story! About a male-less world in the very far future.

I liked the little newspaper clippings, journal entries, and articles between the chapters kind of fed the story along, instead of extra dialogue and whatnot. Plus it was crazy unique! I did have a problem with the “meat” of the story which consisted of them going back and forth interviewing people and to be honest if I didn’t have the little chapter breaks of the newspaper clippings etc. not sure if I would have enjoyed it this much! The idea of the story was unique, two stars for the “chapter fillers” and a half a star for the actual story line sold 3.5 would I read anything else from this author? For sure!

What if all the men were dead and the world consisted of only women? What if they could bring them back? Should they? Some of the women say yes. Others say no. When the project to bring men back into existence goes missing, Athena Vosh gets pulled from her life as a painter to help investigate the theft. The author does a good job creating a believable and futuristic world full of fascinating inventions and ideas. It raises some interesting questions about the worth of man and woman kind and their places in the world.

I'm sorry, I didn't enjoy this book at all. I didn't even get 100 pages in and I hated it already. I thought the concept was truly fascinating, however, there was a lot of unnecessary filler that ruined it for me. It just ruined the whole book for me. Unfortunately I will not be reviewing this book on my blog as I DNF. I wish the author the best of luck in future projects.

I'm not quite sure how to review this story. Overall, the writing was good and the plot was interesting. I can see why some people loved it and some didn't.

The content matter was thought provoking. This story definitely makes you think - that is what has me the most conflicted. I think that's a win for the author.

It was a little slow at times and I was distracted from the story a few times with some odd information.

I loved the author's note at the end - nothing in the story is impossible. That is a scary thought.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

2.5/5... I really enjoyed the concept of this book. Particularly because of where we are in scientific advancement, where a virus could be created that could get out of control. However, I had a hard time staying engaged in the book. The way that the chapters were set up with random articles and reports, etc. made it difficult to remain engaged in the story. Additionally, I personally had a hard time connecting with the characters.

The book, Athena's Choice, by Adam Boostrom, was a bit of a miss for me. In the beginning, the story engaged me, and I liked the main character, but about halfway through, I struggled to care and just wanted the story to end. The extraneous information (via Wikipedia entries, news articles, etc.) were jarring and took me out of the story. I understand why the author used this technique, but for me, I did not enjoy the disruption in the flow of the story.

The year is 2099 and all of the men are gone...

In a near future world, a Y-virus has killed all of the men and a smattering of women. In the aftermath, women have built what appears to be a utopian society. Through scientific breakthroughs and frozen sperm replication, they are still procreating, have quite nearly eliminated maternal and fetal deaths and have found cures for nearly all diseases. The female population discovered that, when using technology for good rather than for empire building and war, there were amazing discoveries just waiting to be had - and so they did create them. It is a world that is, quite literally, at our fingertips today except, well, you know. Men. And war.

Athena is a 19 year old young woman who is at the heart of a mystery. There are some women who wish to bring back men - their sons, brothers and husbands - not literally, of course, they just miss the male presence. These women have initiated the Lazarus Project but someone has "stolen" the genome and for a mysterious reason to be explained throughout the book, Athena is at its core.

This is a bit more YA, perhaps because of Athena's age and narration, but never the less, I found the story completely captivating. The Science Fiction portion of the story was mesmerizing and, upon further research, I discovered that nearly everything mentioned in the book, we are on the cusp of having - if only funds weren't diverted elsewhere. This is very much (!) a book about feminism. At my age, through my experiences, as an American living with a president who is gunning for yet another needless war, who has humans trapped in a concentration camp in hellish conditions where children are dying, who believes that Twitter rants are more important that dealing with mass flooding in one-third of our country, where newborn and maternal deaths are on the rise for the first time in over 100 years... I'm not so sure that living in a female utopia would be such a bad thing. Every war, every disease, every horrific thing in our world's history has been the result of male ego. So I found it completely enjoyable to read a book where there was none of this. None.

I loved that the book was enriched with so many different fonts and inserts. Throughout there were advertisements for various products that Athena was seeing or thinking about purchasing. It was a method to introduce the world building without going through the entire world building introduction in the beginning. I appreciated this because I often do not read sci-fi or fantasy because the world building part is quite boring for me. There also were throw-backs to Athena's school work and, if you paid attention to it, you were being given clues to how the book would end. I suspect that some of the other reviewers skimmed over these and missed key parts of the story. They were hidden gems.

In the end, we are left with Athena's Choice. Men or No Men or ….. you'll have to read the book to know the other choices. There is no answer in the book. The choice is one for us all to think about. I know what my choice would be, without any doubt at all!

After reading other reviews for the book I am now quite certain that this book is not for everyone. It is, however, for open minded, strong, women and men, who can visualize a better world and see the flaws of those who are currently ruining the one we have. I highly recommend it to my fellow feminists. HIGHLY recommend. I have spent days thinking of nothing except this book and I can honestly say, without hesitation, that I loved it!

I have a lot of thoughts... I liked it until the last 20% when I realized what the book was trying to say. 4 stars for the first 80% and 2 stars for the last 20%

Here's what was done well for me - the science fiction. Loved the magnetic clothes, contacts, etc. All very Black Mirror-esque and integrated really well. I liked Athena and Valerie. Both were relatable and easy to root for. I liked the bare bones of the story. It's nothing new to build a story around something that kills all humans of a certain sex but the "should we make men again?" debate was interesting at first. I also thought the writing was good.

After a while, I had a hard time grasping what the point of the book was... either 1. to say that men represent the worst parts of our society and we'd be better off without them or 2. to say that the idea that all men are bad and we'd be better off without them is ridiculous. When the Core sided with Antares' findings, I leaned more towards number 1. I wondered who the author saw himself as until the Core went on a diatribe at the end. I guess I have to chalk this book up to performative male feminism? I thought it was an interesting story but I really disliked the core premise. The author's epilogue... should we alter our genomes to make people better? No thanks.

I absolutely hated everything about Dr. Kirilov, Dr. Antares and the editorial. "She can't begin to understand how wide the gender-gap really is. It takes the heart of a scientist to see the truth." I mean.... *eye roll* I don't mind hating a villain, that's the point of who they are, but the suppositions within the editorial that were presented as fact came from the author's head. The bizarre, warped idea of feminism came from him as well: "True feminism, as I see it, should be able the recognition of our feminine abilities as the greater strength... We women are the true source for the better angels of humanity's nature." Honestly threw up in my mouth a bit.

For the majority of the book, I was confused about the multiple mentions of trans-men dying when the Y-fever broke out. It was either a scientific error (because trans-men are biologically female thus have no Y chromosome) or it was a deliberate part pointing at the larger mystery of the story. I'm still not 100% sure, but I think it's the latter based on what Athena says here: "Anyone who possessed even the tiniest shred of her demonized traits. She killed them all." But it was the *genetic markers* that they targeted, and genetically trans-men are women so... still not sure, but not a big deal.

This is not a content issue but it's also not a kindle ARC formatting issue so I feel like it's relevant to mention. I really disliked the different fonts. There seemed to be more than 5 different fonts used depending on what we were reading (wiki entry, flash back, book report, news article, letter, etc.) and while the inclusion of those extras was at times interesting and/or funny, it also at times took me out of the story. The fonts were altogether annoying. I'd pick just one for any non-narrative moments and stick with it.

This story takes place mainly in 2099 in what is the North American Union. Men have been gone from the planet for over 40 years due to a virus that mutated and killed off every male in existence. While this world without men is peaceful, with no wars, no hunger and no violence, for some of the women who are left, there's a piece of themselves that seems to be missing, and they want to try and bring men back.

Athena is a 19 year old girl who's never known any other world. Born in 2080, she's never seen a male in real life. Only in watching movies from the past does she know what they once looked like. The world Athena lives in is extremely high-tech, and there's currently a project underway to try and bring men back into existence using a special genome (the Lazauras Project). However when the genome supposedly goes missing, Athena finds herself pulled into the investigation and uncovers the horrible truth about what actually happened to men, and who's responsible for the virus.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The feminism is laid on pretty thickly here, but I went into this book just wanting to read the story and not caring about the message. From that standpoint, I liked it. I think it's a bit generous to assume that woman (or any society...men included) would be able to accomplish ALL the crazy technology they seemed to have created and implemented in 50 short years, but it was interesting to read about. While this is definitely not a book everyone will enjoy, I'd recommend it to anyone who fins the premise interesting.

First, I admit I kind of liked that female ruled.

As for being a science fiction book, it was good. The story flowed easily I was captivated by it and found it hard to put down. I wanted to see where the story went and how it would unfold.

The author creates a believable world of high tech advancements that the reader can clearly visualize and fleshes it out with media and history.. it truly came to life and the story was well written.

A great read for by the pool or in front of a fire. Overall a joy to read.

An interesting concept that the author uses in full force to tell an incredible, lush story. Will definitely recommend to readers that enjoy science fiction!